Four Penn College Baseball Players Earn All-Conference Accolades
Friday, October 11, 2002
Four Pennsylvania College of Technology baseball players have been awarded Eastern Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference postseason honors.
Cited for their contributions during the recently completed season were pitchers Travis Pena (Williamsport), Ryan Weller (Fallston, Md.) and Andy Roth (Catasauqua) and outfielder Mike Daciw (Sun Valley). All four are freshmen.
Statistically, Daciw hit .394 with four doubles and 16 stolen bases. On the mound for the Wildcats, Roth was 4-2 with a 1.50 earned run average and 40 strikeouts, Pena was 2-4 with a 2.25 ERA and 24 strikeouts, and Weller was 2-4 with a 2.60 ERA and 21 strikeouts.
Commenting on his team's 9-15 season, Coach Mike Stanzione said, "The season was encapsulated in the last games we played against Keystone. We lost the first game 5-0 with one hit, and three of the five runs we gave up were unearned. We didn't get the key hits when we needed them and our defense would go great for a while, then the bottom would fall out. A very erratic defense cost us dearly during the season. In the second game, we lost 5-3. We hit the ball as well as we can hit it, we got good pitching, but we didn't have enough hitting.
"I think we left more men on base during the season than we've ever done. During our rough stretch we were leaving an average of 12 on per game. That's an average!" Stanzione emphasized, adding, "We didn't have a lot of pitching depth. In a league that's as tough as the EPCC, where you're playing six games a week and you only have three legitimate pitchers, you're going to find some problems."
After the season, Stanzione announced his retirement from coaching and he leaves some big shoes to fill. Under his guidance, Penn College teams went 222-131. The Wildcats won Eastern Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference championships in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000, with Stanzione being named coach of the year during each of those seasons.
From 1992 through 2002, Penn College reached the postseason playoffs 19 times, including a stretch of 15 straight that was snapped this fall. Stanzione coached 24 players who received all-Pennsylvania Collegiate Athletic Association honors and 37 who received all-EPCC honors.
Success came early and often for the Wildcats under Stanzione, as he noted, "From the very first year we were good. We had some tremendous athletes and made the playoffs.
"We've been solid since then. We built a good reputation early and continued to get good players," he added.